The Effect of Singers’ Masks on the Impulse Dispersion of Aerosols During Singing

  1. Matthias Echternach
  2. Laila Ava Hermann
  3. Sophia Gantner
  4. Bogac Tur
  5. Gregor Peters
  6. Caroline Westphalen
  7. Tobias Benthaus
  8. Marie Köberlein
  9. Liudmila Kuranova
  10. Michael Döllinger
  11. Stefan Kniesburges

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Abstract

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  1. Version published to 10.1016/j.jvoice.2021.08.011
  2. ScreenIT

    SciScore for 10.1101/2021.07.20.21260853: (What is this?)

    Please note, not all rigor criteria are appropriate for all manuscripts.

    Table 1: Rigor

    EthicsIRB: After approval from the local ethics committee (no. 20-1065), initially 13 professional singers were included (11 from the Bavarian Radio Chorus,
    Sex as a biological variable185 Hz) for the male and F#4 (fo approx.
    Randomizationnot detected.
    Blindingnot detected.
    Power Analysisnot detected.

    Table 2: Resources

    Software and Algorithms
    SentencesResources
    The liquid was nebulized using a Lynden Vox e-cigarette (Lynden GmbH, Dürmentingen, Germany) and the amount of gas inhaled was controlled using a ZAN 100 spirometer (ZAN, Inspire Healthcare, Oberthulba, Germany) mounted on the e-cigarette.
    Inspire Healthcare
    suggested: None
    This computation of curve smoothing was performed in Matlab (The Mathworks Inc., Natick, MA).
    Matlab
    suggested: (MATLAB, RRID:SCR_001622)

    Results from OddPub: We did not detect open data. We also did not detect open code. Researchers are encouraged to share open data when possible (see Nature blog).

    Results from LimitationRecognizer: We detected the following sentences addressing limitations in the study:
    For most singers, however, the associated limitations concerning inhalation, articulation etc. were so weighty that a singing performance with any of the tested mask models appeared not desirable. A particular problem was the self-auditory perception. In this respect, some masks, especially when surrounding the auricles (Qatar Mask), strongly influenced the perception of the own voice. Therefore, the specific acoustic alteration due to the tested masks should be analyzed in future investigations. There were many limitations associated with the presented investigation. First, it appears important that the analyzed data only present the primary impulse dispersion by singing and refer to artificially introduced aerosols that do not reflect the real number of potentially virus-laden particles. Consequently, an analysis on the absolute aerosol reduction by the tested masks cannot be offered here. Next, only professional singers have been included. However, a potentially different behavior in amateur singers could not be excluded. Further, it could be speculated that on opera stages the exaggerated articulation could lead to different dispersion patterns, as well as the influence of greater movement activities on the masks and the aerosol clouds. Additionally, the data only refers to a part of a classical masterpiece. Different data when singing other styles or other languages cannot be excluded. Especially Musical Theater singing could lead to observable changes due to its practic...

    Results from TrialIdentifier: No clinical trial numbers were referenced.

    Results from Barzooka: We did not find any issues relating to the usage of bar graphs.

    Results from JetFighter: We did not find any issues relating to colormaps.

    Results from rtransparent:
    • Thank you for including a conflict of interest statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • Thank you for including a funding statement. Authors are encouraged to include this statement when submitting to a journal.
    • No protocol registration statement was detected.

    Results from scite Reference Check: We found no unreliable references.

    About SciScore

    SciScore is an automated tool that is designed to assist expert reviewers by finding and presenting formulaic information scattered throughout a paper in a standard, easy to digest format. SciScore checks for the presence and correctness of RRIDs (research resource identifiers), and for rigor criteria such as sex and investigator blinding. For details on the theoretical underpinning of rigor criteria and the tools shown here, including references cited, please follow this link.

  3. Version published to 10.1101/2021.07.20.21260853v1 on medRxiv